


Coming Together

by thatwriterlady



Series: 30 Day Writing Challenge 2017 [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Firefighters, Earthquakes, Firefighter Dean, Fluff, Injured Castiel, M/M, Search and Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 17:37:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12635919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatwriterlady/pseuds/thatwriterlady
Summary: After the worst earthquake in 80 some years, Dean is one of many firefighters and volunteers working round the clock to rescue people from the rubble after the entire downtown area collapses, taking all of the businesses down.  His brother Sam is volunteering too, and finds a man trapped by a beam that fell on him.  They manage to move it and get the man on his way to the hospital in time to save his leg, but later he learns that the man lost more than just his bookstore in the earthquake.  He lost his home and everything else too.  Dean comes to a decision that will change both of their lives, hopefully for the better.





	Coming Together

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so the word for this one was "Earthquake". I do hope you like this one, and forgive my mistakes in rescue attempts. I hope I did ok? And I hope you all like this one. Enjoy!

**Day 4~**

**Earthquake~**

Dean wiped the sweat off his brow and looked around, surveying the damage.  They’d been at this all day and they were still finding people in the rubble.  More than 300 so far.  He could see Benny and Garth pulling a woman from what was once a basement and even from where he was standing, he knew she wasn’t alive.  Squinting up at the sun, he knew they only had a few more good hours of daylight before they’d have to bring out the lanterns, and then more volunteers would be arriving to help.  That didn’t mean Dean would be stopping.  This was his job, and there were people out here dying.  He would save as many as physically possible.

 

“Over here!”  Someone yelled.  Dean slid his mask back into place and hurried over to where Victor and Uriel were moving bricks out of the way.  This had been the bank earlier today.  Now it was just a pile of broken concrete and bricks.  He pitched in to help move as many of the bricks and broken pieces of concrete as possible as quickly as they could.  Twenty minutes later they were looking down at six people, all of which were injured to one degree or another.  Dean hopped down in the hole and began passing people up to Victor and Uriel to be taken to the nearest ambulance.  The last person, a woman, couldn’t stand on her own so Victor rigged a sling that Dean fit her into and they hoisted her up that way before they pulled Dean up too.  Then they were on to the next building looking for survivors.

 

According to the reports he’d been catching snippets of since early this morning, this was the worst earthquake in 80 years.  It had decimated the entire downtown area and actually, most of the city had suffered damage.  Dean’s own house had sustained damage and would need quite a bit of work after all of this, but after he’d made sure his brother and parents were ok, he’d raced down here to get to work saving as many people as possible.  His brother and father had come down as volunteers and were helping to look for people lost in the rubble that the firefighters hadn’t gotten to yet, and he was appreciative of all of the volunteers, as long as they were careful.  Already three had gotten hurt.

 

“Dean!  There’s a man trapped in here!”  He heard his brother yelling. 

 

“Coming!”  Dean raced over to where his brother was standing.  This he was pretty sure had been the bookstore.  He’d meant to go in when it had been standing but had never gotten around to it.

 

“His leg is trapped, I can’t get it out on my own.”  Sam said, pointing to the beam that indeed had the man’s leg pinned.

 

“Hold on, let me make sure he’s not bleeding first.”  Dean moved the books and other debris that surrounded the man’s leg away to check for any blood, then he checked the man’s vitals.  The man’s eyes fluttered and then opened.

 

“Hang in there, we’re going to get you out of here.”  He reassured the man.

 

“I think…my leg is broken.”  The man’s voice was raspy and he coughed harshly, spitting up dust and a bit of blood.  Dean pulled his mask off and secured it around the man’s face, making sure he was getting a steady supply of fresh oxygen.  He gave him a few minutes for the man’s breathing to even out before he allowed him to slide the mask off.

 

“I’m going to bet it is too, and moving the beam that has it trapped is going to hurt.  I need you to lay still.  If any arteries are damaged, moving could make things worse.  I’ll get a gurney and move you to an ambulance, but one step at a time.  Ok?”  Dean placed a hand on the man’s shoulder and waited for him to acknowledge what he was saying. 

 

“Yes, ok.” 

 

“What’s your name?”  Dean asked as he moved more junk away.

 

“Castiel.”

 

“Well, Cas, this here’s my brother Sam.  I’m Dean and we’re going to lift this beam.  I want you to bite down on this.”  Dean found a thin book and shoved it in Castiel’s mouth.  The man’s eyes widened for a moment and then he swallowed hard and nodded.  Dean looked over at his brother and nodded.

 

“On three, Sam.”

 

“One,”

 

“Two,”

 

“Three!”

 

They both lifted, putting everything they had into it and tossed the beam aside.  Castiel screamed around the book and reached for his injured leg but Dean caught his hands and gently pushed them away.

 

“No, I need to check your leg.  Lay still.”

 

Castiel had dropped the book and nodded weakly.  “I’ll try.”

 

Dean slid his mask back over Castiel’s face and looked over at Sam.  “Go get me a gurney, and be quick.  Medics are busy, but I can do this myself.  I just need a med bag and a gurney.”

 

“Got it.”  Sam hurried off to see what he could find.  Dean turned his attention back to Castiel’s leg.  He pulled a pair of scissors out of his pocket and set about cutting the man’s pant leg, clear up to his thigh so he could assess the extent of the injury.

 

“Is it bad?  Am I going to lose my leg?”  Castiel asked.

 

Dean didn’t want to lie, but honestly, he had seen worse.  This would need a lot of pins and physical therapy to be able to walk again, but the man _would_ walk again, and that’s what was important.

 

“If we get you to a hospital asap, and they get you into surgery, I believe your leg will be ok.” 

 

Castiel let out a shaky sob and nodded.  “How bad was the earthquake?”

 

“It was bad.  We pretty much don’t have a downtown anymore.”  Dean replied as he searched through the rubble for things he could use to make a splint.  They wouldn’t be able to lift Castiel unless his leg was first stabilized.

 

“The pain is so bad.”  Castiel was trying not to sob, and Dean wished Sam was back with a bag so he could give the man something for pain.

 

“We’re going to get you something for that real soon, I promise.”  

 

He managed to find a board that would work and after cutting Castiel’s jeans into strips, he secured the injured leg to the board just in time for Sam to return.  Thankfully he brought help back too.  Once Castiel was on the gurney and had been given something for pain, Dean covered him with a blanket and switched out his mask for one the medic was giving him.  He watched for a moment as the man was wheeled away before looking at his brother.

 

“We have to keep looking, we’re losing light.”

 

“Next building, let’s go.”  Sam was already climbing over cracked asphalt and debris as he headed for the next building.  Dean followed right behind them.  They had more people to save.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

All in all three fire stations had worked together to save some 300 lives over the course of five exhausting days.  By the end of it all Dean was ready to collapse, but he still made his way up to the hospital to visit as many of the people that he had personally helped rescue.  His brother had been doing the same thing for weeks afterwards, and Dean felt a sense of pride in knowing all of these people had survived the worst earthquake in the town’s last 80 years.  There had still been casualties, roughly a 120 or so, but more people had survived, and he tried to focus on that.

 

Two weeks in, he finally made his way to Castiel’s room.  He’d thought the man would have been released by that point but he’d learned from Ellen, a nurse and family friend that he’d had to undergo multiple surgeries to put his leg back together, and he was looking at probably one more before he’d be able to leave, but the poor guy had nowhere to go.  His apartment had been over the bookstore as he was the owner, and when the building collapsed, he’d lost not only his business, but his home too.  That had brought Dean to his door on a Friday afternoon, with a bouquet of daisies and a stack of magazines.  He’d been bringing flowers to everyone he visited, and when he could, he’d been gathering magazines from his family and friends to donate to people at the hospital.  Sitting in bed with nothing but the TV to stare at got mighty dull after a while. 

 

He had gotten the room number from Ellen and when he arrived, Castiel was laying back, staring at the ceiling.  His television was playing some crime show but he wasn’t paying attention to it.  Dean knocked on the door frame, drawing the man’s attention.

 

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

 

Castiel tilted his head, narrowing his eyes for a moment as if trying to puzzle out who Dean was, then they widened with recognition.

 

“Oh!  You’re the firefighter who rescued me!”

 

“Yep, that’s me.”  Dean smiled wide as he walked into the room.

 

“Dean, right?” 

 

Dean nodded and held out the flowers.  “You remembered.  Thought maybe the trauma would have made you forget.”

 

“I wanted to remember the man I owe my life to.  Your brother Sam as well.  How is he?”  Castiel took the flowers, smiling as he brought them to his nose and breathed in their scent.  “Thank you, these are beautiful.”

 

“You’re welcome.  I thought daisies might cheer the room up some.”  Dean pulled a chair over and sat down.  “Sam’s doing good.  He’s going around, visiting people too.  I heard they had to do a couple surgeries on your leg, and that another one might be in order.”

 

“They’re now thinking the third one won’t be necessary.  There was a blood flow issue and they were talking about moving an artery, but there was so much swelling, and now that the swelling is going down, blood flow has increased, so it’s unlikely that I’ll need the new surgery.  I will, however, need extensive physical therapy.  I have enough pins in my leg to set off metal detectors every time I fly for the rest of my life.”  Castiel said jokingly. 

 

“Well, pins aren’t so bad.  I have a couple in my knee from a fall a few years ago.  Floor gave out during a fire and I fell almost two stories.  Tore my knee up good.  I did the whole physical therapy thing too.  It wasn’t fun but I got through it.  You’re tough, you’ll get through it too.”  Dean set the magazines on the bed and took back the flowers so he could stick them in a cup. 

 

“What are these?”  Castiel picked up the first magazine and flipped it open.

 

“I get people to donate magazines they’re done with to people at the hospital, and I bring them up.  Staring at these walls, or the four lousy channels on TV gets real old real fast.  I thought maybe you’d like something to read.  If you prefer books, I can bring books.  I, uh, went back to your store and tried to salvage as many of your books as I could.  Every able body in town has been doing that, trying to help survivors collect whatever they could.  I’ve gathered about 400 books and a couple dozen sketchbooks.  There was a laptop in a case too, but it was smashed.  I passed that along to my friend Ash who is working to fix broken computers for people who lost theirs in the quake.  He has a couple dozen he’s working on, so he won’t get to it right away.”  Dean explained.  Castiel looked up at him, studying him for a long moment.

 

“Thank you, Dean, for everything.  I very much appreciate this.”

 

“One more thing.”  Dean rubbed nervously at the back of his neck.  He wasn’t sure if this part would go over well, but if the man had nowhere else to go, he wanted to do something to help him get back on his feet.

 

“Yes?”

 

“I sort of heard that you lived above the bookstore.”

 

Castiel’s face fell, and Dean felt an ache in his heart seeing him like that.

 

“I did.  I don’t live anywhere now.”

 

“Well, the town is sort of pulling together, and there’s a huge fundraiser going on to raise money to rebuild, but most people are relying on their insurance.  Did you own the building?”  Dean asked.

 

“I was leasing it.”

 

“Oh, so it wasn’t yours.”  Dean realized.

 

“No, but I was trying to save up to buy it.”

 

“Do you think the owner will rebuild?”

 

Castiel shrugged.  “I honestly don’t know, and my insurance…I’m not sure it will cover me opening another book store.  That was my dream, and now…”

 

“Well, let’s take this one step at a time.  The city is raising money.  The fundraiser is nationwide, and it’s been on the news nationwide.  Donations have poured in from all over, including from celebrities.  Turns out some hot shot actor grew up here, and when he heard what happened, he donated ten million.  City funds will cover rebuilding things like roads, so the money will go into the businesses.  You’ll get a portion, that’s guaranteed.  They’re already taking a tally of all the businesses that were a complete loss in the quake, and yours I saw was on the list.  So don’t count your book store out just yet.  Even if you have to open up in a new location, you’re not necessarily finished.”  Dean said.

 

“Oh, I really hope you’re right.  It’s been my dream my entire life to own my own book store, and I’ve had this one for three years now and it’s been very successful.  I don’t want to lose it.” 

 

“I kept meaning to go in there too, I just never got around to it.  I promise, once it’s reopened, I’ll be a regular customer.  But, uh, what I was trying to get to before.  You need a place to stay until you can figure things out with your store, and the insurance and stuff gets situated.  I have a three bedroom house, and I’d like to offer you a room.  It’s a ranch, so one story, everything is on one floor, so no stairs for you to climb.  I am not charging rent.  You can stay as long as you want.  Get back on your feet.”  Dean held his breath and waited to see how Castiel would respond.  He found those blue eyes staring intently at him again.  Without thick layers of dust, dirt and blood covering the man’s face, Castiel was an extremely attractive man.

 

“You don’t need to offer your home.  I can stay at a hotel.”

 

“For how long?  They’re expensive.  And can you drive with that leg?  I don’t think so.  You’d have the benefit of living with a trained medic/firefighter and a lawyer.  Sam lives with me for now, so if you need rides to therapy, one of us can easily take you.  If there’s a problem with your leg, I can spot it right away.  If your insurance decides to be a dick or the city tries to stiff you out of your share of the money, my brother will make sure you get what you deserve.  Besides, I hate to break it to you but every hotel for a 50 mile radius is booked solid for months.  If it’s not with people that ended up homeless like you, it’s with their family that came to stay and take care of them, or volunteers helping to clean and rebuild.  Most of the townsfolk are putting people up as their guests at this point.  But I wanted to offer my home to you.”

 

Castiel searched Dean’s eyes for a long time, looking deep into his green orbs, but what he was seeking, Dean was not sure.  In the end, he simply smiled softly.

 

“You’re sure?”

 

“Yeah.  You need a safe place once you’re released, and I don’t want you struggling or stressing yourself out more.  You need rest and to heal.  I have a room and a bed where you can continue getting better.  There is no time limit on leaving either.  I did have some damage to my house in the quake, but I have fixed it all.  It was a couple broken windows, some roof damage, that kind of stuff.  Anything else pops up, I can fix all of that.”  Dean replied.

 

Castiel wiped at his eyes as he felt them filling with tears.  “Thank you.  I didn’t know what I was going to do or where I was going to go.  I’ve been asking the nurses to check and see if the shelters had any room but they’ve said those are full too.  I have nothing to my name anymore, not even my clothes.  Some have been donated, but that’s it.  That’s all I have.  I can’t express how much this means to me.”

 

“I’m just glad I can help.  Here, I will give you my phone number and Sam’s.  You call me when you’re being released and I will come and pick you up.  Of course I’ll come visit you before then, this won’t be the only time I come see you, but when the time comes to leave, I’ll be here to take you home.”  Dean pulled a business card out of his pocket and handed it over.  He’d already written Sam’s cell phone number on the back.  His own was on the front as well as the number for the fire station.

 

“I will, I’ll call you as soon as they tell me I can go home.”  Castiel promised.

 

“So, since we’re going to be roommates, why don’t you tell me about yourself?”  Dean asked.  “Let’s get to know each other.  I’ll start.  I’m 34,  started off as a medic, then became a firefighter because that’s what I always wanted to be, I’m single, I work too much, I like cheeseburgers, so I make them more than I should, I watch Dr. Sexy reruns when I can catch them, and when I have vacation time, I go fishing or on road trips.  I’m not straight, I hope that’s not a problem, but I haven’t dated in over two years, so I won’t be bringing anyone home, especially not with the chaos the town is currently in.  I have too much work to do.  Just in case you like, have an issue with that.  Some people do around here.  I’m just laying it out there.”

 

“No, I have no problem with that at all.  I’m…not straight either.  It’s why I’m sitting in this hospital homeless instead of calling my family to see if I could come stay with one of them.  I was disowned when I came out at 18.  Well, about me.  I am 38, I taught English and Creative Writing at a community college for several years before deciding I wanted to open my store.  I am single as well, not very social, I tend to be an introvert, and I too love cheeseburgers.  Most of my free time is spent reading, which I’m sure is no real surprise, but I do like Dr. Sexy.  I will not bring anyone into your home.  I have no desire to.  Especially not when I have a long road ahead of me with my recovery.”  Castiel smiled softly and Dean found himself smiling back.

 

“Well, you should be out of here soon.  This is my only day off until Wednesday, but I can move things around to come get you, that’s not a problem.  You just call me and I’ll come get you.  Oh, and about Sam?  He’s a nerd to the extreme.  He loves salads, pop music, audio book documentaries, so if you see him walking around with earbuds in, it’s doubtful he’s listening to music, it’s probably one of his documentaries.  He’s straight but a strong ally, has a girlfriend named Eileen who’s deaf, so she’s over sometimes.  Mostly he goes to visit her though.  He’ll nag us both about burgers and heart disease, but he only means well.  You’ll find a lot of things with fiber in the cabinets and the fridge and if you see green liquid that looks like vomit in the fridge, that’s his protein shakes.  They’re disgusting, don’t let him talk you into trying them, they taste like grass.”  Dean grimaced.  Castiel laughed and nodded.

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.  He sounds nice though.”

 

“He’s a great guy.  You’ll like him.”  Dean settled back in his chair, slinging one arm over the back.  “So, tell me more about yourself.”

 

Castiel smiled wider.  “Alright, well, I grew up in Illinois…”

 

                                                                                                         

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always welcome. Thank you for reading.


End file.
